1. Field
The present embodiments relate to exception handling in programming languages. More specifically, the present embodiments relate to indicators for resources with idempotent close methods to facilitate the execution of resource-management statements with wrapped resources in software programs.
2. Related Art
Programming language platforms may include resources that must be manually closed, such as file descriptors, formatters, sockets, input/output (I/O) channels, database connections, and/or graphics contexts. However, manual closing of resources is often performed incorrectly and/or increases code length and complexity. For example, a resource may be initialized and used within a “try-catch” block and closed within a “finally” block following the “try-catch” block. If the resource's close method can complete erroneously (e.g., complete abruptly with a checked exception), an exception-handling construct must be included. For example, the exception-handling construct may include a catch block for checked exceptions and/or a throws clause for checked exceptions on the enclosing method and/or constructor. Moreover, if the close method is not called (e.g., due to omission of a call to the close method and/or a thrown exception before a call to the close method is made), resource leaks and/or failures may occur.
To simplify use of such resources, the resources may be declared using resource-management statements that automatically close the resources after the resources are no longer used. For example, a resource-management statement may correspond to a form of a “try” block that declares one or more resources, with the scope of the resource declaration(s) limited to the “try” block. During compilation of the resource-management statement, a compiler may insert a “finally” block and/or a nested “try-catch” block containing calls to the resources' close methods after the resource-management statement. Finally, once the resource-management statement finishes executing (e.g., normally or abruptly), the inserted code is executed and the declared resources are automatically closed.
As a result, use of resource-management statements to initialize and close resources may streamline source code, simplify development, and/or reduce the incidence of resource leaks and/or failures.